I will Protect
by AmyNChan
Summary: this was a contest entry for my deviantart ! * *


_**14AmyChan: I'm entering a contest~! Wish me luck~! *^_^***_

_**LenaLee: You can see the contest at deviantart**_

_**Allen: Please wish 14AmyChan luck! *bows***_

_**14AmyChan: *glomps Allen* AREN'T YOU JUST SO CUTE? *^_^***_

_**LenaLee: ^^# 14AmyChan doesn't own any of -Man.**_

_**14AmyChan: Let's get this show started~! *^_^***_

"Man, do we ever get a day off?" Lavi asked as he followed his friends as they all patrolled the perimeter of the town for any akuma. He, Allen, and LenaLee were in charge of collecting the innocence that was rumored to be in this town. A dense forest surrounded the said town.

"Quit your complaining!" Bookman barked at his charge, effectively kicking the redhead in the—you know—head. Oh yeah, the panda was here, too… "It may be the festive season, but the Earl never takes a rest, so neither should the Exorcists." That was him, talking as if never taking sides…

"Lavi's right, though…" LenaLee stated quietly. Underneath her shorter purple hair, her eyes were looking far off into the distant past, remembering past years come and gone. "I was hoping to see the New Year with my older brother…"

"We have another eight hours" Allen tried cheering everybody up. He tried to get everyone to think positively. "Maybe we'll be done by then! Then we can go back home and eat and party and eat and-"

"Eat some more, huh?" Lavi asked, pulling his friend into a noogie. LenaLee couldn't help but giggle at the two she considered her brothers. She loved the fact that they both knew exactly what to say to make her feel better.

"Even if we don't make it, we can still wish everyone a Happy New Year when we get back" LenaLee's outlook on the holiday brightened when Allen made that point. His reward, however, was the continuation of his noogie from his friend. LenaLee laughed as Allen continued to wiggle to try to get out of Lavi's grasp. Bookman sighed at the young warriors.

…/…/…/

"So, which ones are we after again, Master Jasdevi?" Relo asked the two Noahs. The two had come out for a bit of New Years fun. And by fun, it meant finding Cross' apprentice and shoving more debts onto the white-haired punk. Luckily, they had just found him, but unluckily, he was with his friends. They weren't necessarily a _problem_ for the two Noah, but they were troublesome.

"Apprentice, apprentice! Hee!" Jasdero squealed, picking the obvious of the four targets.

"Yeah, but we're going to want to torture him, too" David mused, trying to figure out which of the three companions would give the white-y the most pain. The answer wasn't hard for him.

"Are you going to grab him with the red-headed one, Master Jasdevi?" Relo asked, watching as Allen Walker and the redhead continued to wrestle around. It looked like the redhead had Allen Walker in a headlock. Occasionally he would get out of the headlock only to be trapped by the bookman heir again.

"No! No! Hee!" Jasdero squealed once again. "He sees through everything! Sees! Hee!"

"Yes…" David agreed with his other half. "He's a bit of a party pooper, but that one isn't!" David pointed at the one who was laughing at the two men. The one that was practically useless in the last fight. LenaLee.

…/…/…/

Allen laughed as he finally pried Lavi off of him once again. His white hair wasn't messed up _too_ bad, but hey, at least LenaLee was laughing along with them. In the back of his mind, Allen was counting down the hours until New Years. At that moment, it was four hours and counting.

All of a sudden, Allen's cursed left eye reacted to the presence of at least a thousand level one akuma. They were all around, and closing in fast. The moment that Allen tensed up, everyone knew that there was a fight coming.

It happened so quickly. The akuma seemed to move in a uniform pattern. As if they had come in with a plan. About seventy-eight percent of them crowded around Bookman and Lavi, creating a wall around them. Using Crown Clown, Allen began picking apart the wall. It wasn't too hard, in fact, it was almost _easy_. None of the other akuma were attacking him.

In a flash, several needles escaped the wall of akuma and almost hit Allen. He barley had enough time to get out of the way.

"What's the big idea?" Allen yelled angrily at Bookman, who was the only one adept enough with the needles to have gotten though the wall.

"Pay attention to LenaLee! We can get out of this!" Lavi shouted through the wall. Curious, Allen turned around to see LenaLee kicking multiple akuma asses. It was then that he saw a flash of purple. Purple? And that shade? It could only mean—

_Bang!_

Two gunshots filled the air, and Allen knew exactly what happened. He barley heard Lavi commanding him to get to LenaLee as quickly as possible, he just did it. Leaving the Bookmen to fight the numerous akuma, Allen raced off to make sure that LenaLee wasn't too seriously injured.

…/…/…/

"That was too easy" David yawned. The girl was trapped in a block of ice, but it seemed that there was a layer underneath that. He and Jasdero had gone through at least five akuma moving that thing over to where they were. This was so easy; they even sent Relo back to the Earl. That and the stupid umbrella wouldn't shut up…

"Easy! Easy! Hee!" Jasdero chimed in. Jasdero plucked a stack of invoices from his back pocket and went through them all again. "So much debt! Debt! Damn you Cross! Hee!" Jasdero wanted to rip these papers up so badly, but he was being a good boy and stopping himself. These were for mister apprentice.

Suddenly, two eerie lights shone from the darkness of the forest. It officially scared the living crap out of the two Noah, but they'd seen that look before.

…/…/…/

"Debts?" Allen weakly managed to get out before completely losing it. "You hurt my friends and kidnapped LenaLee for some DEBTS!" Out of the corner of his eye, he could see LenaLee covered in a thin layer of ice. Underneath that, her innocence was protecting her again. Allen could also make out some steam escaping the catalyst.

"Shut up!" David commanded the exorcist, quickly getting over the scare. His surprise quickly turned into more fuel for his rapidly increasing anger. "This time it's more than a hundred guineas!"

"Yeah! More! More!" Jasdero joined the bombardment of the exorcist. He flung the pieces of paper at Allen Walker's face, making sure that he got to read every single one of the pieces of paper. Those bad pieces of paper.

"Is this all?" Allen's voice became creepy again. It sounded almost like he was going to go on a poker playing marathon. Almost, but something was off in his voice…

"What do you mean 'all'?" David and Jasdero exclaimed together. They were so pissed off by this kid. He should be taught something…

"That's 500 guineas!" David exclaimed, infuriated by the white-haired punk's indifference. Then he remembered their new ace-in-the-hole. "And if you don't pay, this time—" David looked behind him to see that the ice had melted and the girl exorcist was gone. "Where'd she go!"

"I'm right above you!" LenaLee's foot came down hard on David's head. At supersonic speed. David almost reached the mantle of the earth. LenaLee jumped out of the hole and walked calmly over to Allen. "Thanks for not giving me away" she smiled.

Allen smiled right back. "It wasn't anything too big…"

"YOU HURT DAVID! HEEE!" Jasdero fired his gun. Nothing came out. Again and again, the lone Noah fired, but still nothing came out.

"Can I get this one?" Allen asked, seriously annoyed at how ridiculous this guy was. He was also pissed off because they had kidnapped LenaLee over some _debts_. Unfortunately, he never got that chance because just then, a door opened up. An all-too-familiar door. This door could travel across dimensions and brought along with it a _very_ annoying little girl.

"It's time to go back" Road smiled, holding an unconscious David over her shoulder. "We'll be late for the fireworks~!"

"DAVID!" Jasdero blundered after his twin. After falling through the door, Road looked back at Allen, who was with LenaLee. Road quickly became disgusted with the sight.

"Happy New Years, Allen~!" Road smiled for the one guy that held her heart. She gave a menacing glare to the girl and warned "enjoy it while it lasts."

Right after the door shut, Allen and LenaLee were left in the dark. They had no idea what had just happened, nor what Road had meant, but they decided to take her word for it.

"Do you want to get back to Lavi and Bookman?" Allen asked, trying to smooth over what had just happened. Why Road had chosen to dote on him, Allen didn't know. He hoped he never had to understand that kid.

"Yeah" LenaLee followed Allen back to where they had come from. At least, that was the plan until LenaLee made an important discovery.

"You have no sense of direction, do you?" LenaLee's accusation was right on the money. She could see it when Allen just stopped mid-step and looked back with that cute apologetic smile of his.

LenaLee sighed. _Well_, LenaLee thought, sitting down. _Might as well enjoy the present…_

…/…/…/

Three hours had passed since Allen and LenaLee had gotten lost. They had chosen a spot that was clear of any trees to sit and hoped that Bookman and Lavi could find them soon. They had made a small fire in hopes that the smoke would show their comrades where they were.

"Sorry about getting lost" Allen apologized for the umpteenth time. If LenaLee didn't find it so cute, she would have told him to shut up a long time ago.

"It's fine as long as someone finds us" LenaLee repeated. She just looked up at the sky, grateful that there wasn't a cloud in sight. She liked looking at the stars. They were really pretty. She wanted Allen to watch them with her. "Why don't you just sit down?"

"Um… okay" Allen took LenaLee's offer and sat down right next to her. They both just sat there, watching the stars for a few minutes. Listening to the crackling of the fire. It was so peaceful.

"Sorry" Allen said, checking his watch. "We didn't finish the mission on time; it's two minutes to New Years…"

"Yeah, but we'll wish everyone a Happy New Years when we get back, right?" LenaLee reminded her friend.

"Yeah" Allen looked up at the starry night. It was two minutes until a New Year came.

"So what are your resolutions?" LenaLee asked. She wanted to just talk with him. Maybe get some laughs and some smiles. She wasn't sure what Road had meant by 'enjoy it while it lasts', but she intended to. Enjoy every minute. Every second.

"Resolutions?" Allen asked, remembering Mana saying something about them a long time ago. If he remembered right, then those were-

"Yeah, plans for this next year. Goals and stuff" LenaLee prodded. "So, any goals in mind?"

"Well, defeating the Earl is one of them, I guess…" Allen said slowly, then he thought on his friends at the order. Lavi, Kanda, Johnny, Komoui, Jerry, LenaLee… "And the other would be to protect my friends…"

"Protecting what's important to you?" LenaLee asked, thoughtful. In truth, she had no idea what she was going to do for her resolutions, but that fell in line with her style of life. Fight today so you can be with the people that are important to you.

"Yeah" Allen smiled, as a thought hit him. "I guess another one would be to try one of every kind of meal on the planet!"

"Ha ha!" LenaLee laughed. To Allen, it was a sound of musical bliss. He tucked this moment away in his mind, ready to remember forever.

"What about you?" Allen asked, curious as to what the girl would say.

"Protecting my family" LenaLee said. It was the motive behind everything she did. She would always do anything to protect her family. Lavi, Kanda, the science department, Komoui, Allen…

"So that's it?" Allen asked slyly. He had given three, and he couldn't help but feeling that LenaLee was cheating. Somehow, he just had a gut feeling that LenaLee was cheating. "There's no more?" he prodded.

"Maybe I'll get a boyfriend this year…" LenaLee let slip. _Crap!_ She thought, turning away from Allen. _I didn't mean to say that! What do I do what do I do!_

Allen was stunned. LenaLee didn't seem to be the type to think of that kind of thing. And for some reason, it felt like his heart flew and sank at the same time. He couldn't help but prod some more. "So, if you were to get one, what would he be like?"

LenaLee shouldn't have been caught off-guard by the question, but she was all the same. It took a second for her to formulate the answer.

"I guess he'd be kind and considerate, but he'd be his own person" LenaLee started out. "He'd let me watch his back and I could trust him with mine. But most importantly, I want to be comfortable around him…"

For some reason, with every word that LenaLee said, Allen's heart sunk deeper and deeper. He didn't know why, it just did. "Is that so?" he managed to ask with a smile on his face. It was painful to hear her talk about her 'dream guy', but he was the one who asked. Maybe he shouldn't have prodded so much…

"What about you, Allen?" LenaLee asked. "You ever think about getting a girlfriend?" LenaLee couldn't _believe_ she had gone on and on like that. It was a wonder that Allen didn't figure it out.

"Not really" Allen stated truthfully. "I don't want to drag some girl into the mess of my life. It can get pretty complicated." Even though he really wanted to hang out with LenaLee some more. Maybe have a relationship, but he couldn't be the one to put her in more danger. That would tear him apart…

"Oh, I see" LenaLee looked thoughtful on the outside, but inside, she felt a little crushed. Was this a rejection? Did he think she couldn't handle helping him out?

"How about we stick to protecting what's important?" Allen asked as his watch ticked down the seconds of the year. He wanted this memory to be special and important. He didn't want to look back on this moment and remember heartache.

"What's important" LenaLee repeated. She smiled. That was something she could strive for. She held out her pinkie. "We'll keep that one together."

"Okay" Allen linked his pinkie with hers. And on the first second of the first minute of the first hour of the first day of the New Year, they made a promise to protect what was most important to them.

"Hey!" Lavi called from above. He and Bookman were riding on his hammer. "We got the innocence! Let's go home, 'kay?"

Allen and LenaLee smiled as they put out the fire and went home with their friends. They were greeted by many, loved by many, and asked by many. 'What are your New Years Resolutions?'

Allen and LenaLee would just look at each other knowingly and answer the same every time. It was a secret. To all except them. It was a promise to each other. It didn't need to be said aloud, but both knew what it was just the same. What was their New Years Resolution? Simple. A silent promise to each other:

_I will protect you_.

_**14AmyChan: Okay, so it's a really long one-shot, but who cares, right? *^_^***_

_**Allen: Please be kind!**_

_**LenaLee: And happy New Years! ^^**_


End file.
